The Gradel Institute of Charity
Our focus
The Gradel Institute of Charity opened on 29 September 2023 and is focused on using its research and collaboration with like-minded organisations to educate and inspire charities and other third sector organisations to embrace purposeful change to impact the world.
Based in a striking tower in Savile Road that blends in perfectly with New College and the surrounding Oxford landscape, the Institute aims to become a beacon for both the academic study of charity and the charity sector itself.
The Institute will conduct the highest quality research; provide a recognised global forum where ideas relating to charity can be discussed; fill the current gap in the availability of practical, soundly-based programmes which will deliver change in the sector; and help create teaching, as well as executive development.
We aim to help develop the governance and leadership of charities and help them measure and so improve the impact they have both nationally and globally.
Our priorities
Research to illuminate how to create sustainability in the sector; publishing its findings; and translating them into blueprints for action.
Curriculum developed with partners and providers to create interdisciplinary syllabi and courses, with the objective of professionalising the sector at all levels.
Leadership development to help strengthen performance of senior executives within the sector and develop the next generation of leaders.
Information gathered from around the globe will be disseminated virtually and through seminars and lectures at the Institute’s new facilities as well as at partnering institutions. Data on our sector is poor and we will collaborate with key sector bodies to develop world class date capture.
Collaboration with other universities and a range of national infrastructure bodies and external partners and providers to scale and multiply impact.
Advocacy based on our research to influence governments, media, opinion formers and the general public to create a more positive environment for the sector.
Networking. The Gradel Institute of Charity intends to scale and catalyse its impact through active international collaboration and networks. The new tower which is home to The Gradel Institute of Charity adjoins a 100-seater lecture hall and newly built bedrooms, allowing the Institute to run seminars, lectures, and summer schools.
Public lectures, publications and awards.
A bank of knowledge. There has never been a storehouse for centralised, institutional knowledge and research for non-profit practices. Until now.
A message from Academic Director Professor Peter Frumkin
Welcome to the Gradel Institute of Charity at New College, the University of Oxford. At a time when charity organisations around the world are being called on to assist the delivery of a huge array of critical services to local communities, there is a pressing need for both insightful and relevant research about the sector and practical programmes that assist leaders increase the impact of their work.
For this reason, the Gradel Institute has the dual goal of catalysing the resources and expertise of the University of Oxford to develop new insights about charities, while also translating these ideas into programmes that engage leaders committed to achieving greater effectiveness in their work.
We look forward to sharing our work with you in the years ahead.
Our relationship with New College
The academic tradition at New College has always been open. We are conscious of the part we can play in the betterment of society. The Gradel Institute of Charity reflects that past commitment, but also feels an appropriate way of helping protect and enhance the Third Sector in the future. We believe what is not well researched is rarely well understood and is not well defended.
We have a strong commitment to academic research – and that extends into having a number of dedicated research centres, including the Balzan Centre for Cosmological Studies and the Sir Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics.
One of the advantages of a college-based research centre is that it can easily achieve “inter-disciplinarity charity” and feed off the various specialisms within both the University and the College itself.
It is one of the founding principles of the Gradel Institute of Charity that it will seek to work with researchers from across the academic spectrum, encompassing subjects such as economics, politics, philosophy, history, law, and whatever other discipline will provide insights into the Institute’s objective.
The Gradel Institute of Charity is an integral part of New College, with the supervising Committee reporting to our Governing Body. The Warden chairs the Committee, whilst the Academic Director and Executive Director are members of the Senior Common Room.
At the same time, New College is very clear that it does not have an exclusive relationship with the Gradel Institute of Charity. It will collaborate with different colleges in Oxford, and with different Universities in the UK and the wider world. Ours is an open relationship premised on obtaining the best and most useful research.
“I want to extend my support and congratulations. This collaboration marks an incredible milestone in the study of a major aspect of our history and culture. The establishment of the world’s first research centre focusing on charity is an inspiring and essential step towards understanding and addressing the critical challenges faced by charitable organisations. May its work pave the way for a better understanding of the sector and empower individuals and organisations to create lasting and positive change in society.”
The Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP
